Apparently
by gingersnapped907
Summary: BamDammmsters Prompt... I'm my own worst enemy. I picked Russell Taylor. Since I usually write about Sharon, Andy and, Shandy I wanted a change and a challenge. I tried to get into the Asst. Chief's head on why he's always a bit gruff all the time, especially towards Raydor. So, Taylor finds himself a bit jealous as he reflects on his career.


**__**~Apparently~**__**

BamDammmsters Prompt... I'm my own worst enemy.

Our way of getting through the dreaded hiatus.

 **Disclaimer** : I own nothin' of Major Crimes.

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Russell Taylor stood at his office window with his hands in his pockets looking out over the always-bustling city. He was sure there was a crime being committed somewhere. In a city, the size of LA there had to be. Turning away to slowly stroll over to his desk, looking around the huge office as he went. He had achieved all his goals, well almost all he still had one more step to make. Slipping his hands out of his pockets Taylor reached for his nameplate. "Assistant Chief Russell Taylor," he said out loud firm and proudly. His ultimate goal is to be the actual Chief of the entire LAPD. Absently playing with the placard in his hands he walked around the massive cherry pinewood desk. Checking on his model airplane as he went, they carried a lot of special meaning for him. It was one of the things his kids and he did when they had time to spend together. The older models were ones his dad and he had assembled. The planes had also followed him up the ladder of success, from his desk as Captain in Robbery/Homicide to having no desk as Commander when they moved to the new PAB. He had to admit he felt a little-displaced back when he only had a cubicle instead of an office, but it gave him a chance to see how Major Crimes Division worked. He was shocked back then that Brenda Leigh Johnson could handle that bunch of misfits, elite misfits but misfits just the same. That woman had a way about her but she could close a case.

Before sitting down Taylor leaned forward to place the nameplate back in the spot where it belonged, in the front of his desk. Resting back in his chair he smiled as he glanced at his wife's pictures, frowning a little when he looked at his kids framed smiles. They were growing up fast and without him. This job took most of his time. That was one of the sacrifices he didn't like. It was the hardest thing he dealt with and had to make the time he spent with them count all that much more. Taylor worked hard to give them the life he thought they should have. Even if that cost him most of his friends as he stepped up each rung of that ladder. He had made it clear early on that he wasn't in this business to make friends he was always here to move his way up to the admiration levels. Taylor knew he was and still is a good cop. He just always had the goal of power and leadership in mind. He had no intention of staying a beat cop. From the first day in the academy, his goal was to be sitting in the comfortable chair, behind a big desk giving orders. Taylor knew what the fellow officers thought of him and he was ok with that. There was always a running joke about him and press conferences but it was a great way to get known. Hell, the Mayor knew his name before he ever became Asst. Chief; the old saying was true it's not what you know it's whom you know.

Stretching out in his chair he laughed, he could see the irony in the fact that he was apparently jealous. Here, he was sitting in the spot he always-wanted one-step away from completing his goals and now he was jealous. The hard part of this reality was the fact of whom he was jealous of and that was none other than Captain Sharon Raydor. She was one of the most hated people in the LAPD. Though he was now probably taken over that title since somehow she won over the closest-knitted group of officers. The Major Crimes unit was made up of the most respected detectives in the force. It was the division he wanted to run, on his way up to the top, but when he came to see that wasn't ever going to happen with Asst. Chief Johnson taking over that position he continued his aim on higher accomplishments, much higher. Taylor's envy and dilemma lately were over Sharon Raydor he had felt confident there was no way they'd ever accept her as one of their own and that she would run them with an iron if not an ice-cold fist. Taylor spun his chair to look out his window again. It was a great view and he liked to take it in as often as he could. Shaking his head as his mind drifted back into thoughts. He still to this day wondered how the Wicked Witch won over Provenza? Now, that was the question of the century. The grumpiest most curmudgeon Lieutenant around became her closest ally. Miracles do still happen it seemed, if she could get him on her side then she was in, golden, the Major Crimes division protected their own. Though it was very hard to become one of them. One thing Taylor knew all too well, he was always on the outside when it came to them. Raydor now had them running like a well-oiled machine, very precise and meticulous.

In the beginning, Taylor had put Captain Raydor in that position to avoid problems the department had in the past and to be able to control her. He knew she respected authority, which most in Major Crimes did not. Most of all she knew all the laws and rules, writing half of them herself and followed them to a T, which was another thing the guys in that division had no idea how to do. The first year went as planned. Raydor kept them in line and they despised her for it. Everyone but Sykes, to her Raydor, could do no wrong. Even though it was years ago now he could still remember their first confrontation after she took over Major Crimes. It was in this very office when Captain Raydor came storming in his door, in only a way that she can. It's not like Chief Johnson's way where she'd throw a door open and start on in you, in a raised voice. Oh no, Raydor's way was much more terrifying. She was quiet; it was mostly done in her body language, eyes, and tone of her voice. Taylor did not like being on the receiving end of her Darth Raydor glare. It could bring a lesser man than him to their knees. He had to show no fear when it came to her, but in a way he did, though he'd never tell anyone that. Mostly the underlining fear was from the fact that she could have his job if she wanted it. Hell, that woman could run the whole LADP force if she wanted to be Chief.

That meeting, as Taylor liked to call it, happened after her second week in charge. The Captain calmly knocked then entered his office to talk to him about the promotion that was promised her that she never received. He knew that she deserved it but with the hiring freeze it just wasn't possible but when she so coolly said, "except apparently on Assistant Chiefs," he almost backed down. The way she could drop her tone could put a chill in the air. He tried to laugh off his discomfort. Luckily, Chief Pope and him discussed the matter beforehand knowing she would be asking, and he had his answer to her already prepared. Taylor had squared himself and lowered his tone to try and match hers, explaining himself. The Captain had a way of turning it all back on him. He had not intended to insult her but the way his words came out she was right. He was basically calling her old and that she was lucky to be where she was. Taylor was just trying to get her out of his office before he caved and promised the formidable woman more than he could deliver. Captain Raydor had that way about her. She could get you to agree to things before you knew what hit you.

Sitting up straight in his big comfortable chair, Taylor flipped open a report he was supposed to read and sign. Yes, he was happy where he was but it was boring. He missed the action of crime solving, maybe that was one reason he took so many trips over to the Major Crimes Division. Not focusing on the words in front of him, he was still thinking of the time when he and Raydor butted heads during the entire case of a killing of a quarterback from his son school. Taylor had threatened her job that day even though they both knew full well there wasn't anybody that could run that team the way she did. He had lost it and blew his top in front of her team and practically yelled at her. He could still remember his words, "this is exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to avoid when I put you in this office." What bothered him more was when she just stood there with a smile then calmly in a bit of overly sweet tone said, "and if you are taking over this investigation, please let me know." Taylor was surprised to see a hint of a smirk on Provenza's face as Raydor said it. It had seemed then that the team was rubbing off on her instead of the other way around.

Letting out a loud sigh he snapped the file closed, he was getting nowhere with it anyways. The other surprise beside Provenza begin on Raydor side years down the road was when Flynn stepped up to defend his Captain when they were working a case about a nineteen-year-old female FBI informant that was thrown from a moving car and killed. Taylor had lost his cool and said, that "Chief Johnson could have found a way around it."

Flynn shocked him when he had her back, saying, "she would have, but then we would be back defending ourselves in court." Taylor had been positive all those years ago when he placed the Lieutenant, to so call help out Priority Homicide that the guy did not like women in charge of him. Though he had no doubt that Flynn had liked women, just mostly tall, young blondes and not too bright. If he thought that Provenza championing for Raydor was the biggest shock of all he would have been wrong. Because now the Captain and a certain Lieutenant had a talk with him reporting, as per the rules to their superior, news that they were dating, old fashionably, but dating still. Though he had to say he could see things heating up between the two that were once enemies. The surprise came from that Raydor was willing to open herself up and take a chance again after all she had been through with Jack. He truly wished them luck. It would be a lot easier for him if they worked out. He had been between failed office romances before and he didn't want to have to transfer either one of them out of that division.

Standing up once again, Taylor made his way to the door. He made his way down the hall to look into the Murder Room. The team was all standing around the murder board discussing found evidence. He said quietly, "how things changed over the last four years," as he watched Flynn and Raydor standing near each other in matching colors. Taylor wanted to clarify to himself that his jealousy didn't come from the fact that these two enemies, turned friends, that were now from what he could tell in love. The Captain stood with her arms crossed, he could see she was processing in her mind the items in front of her. Yes, he would admit Sharon Raydor was a beautiful woman, even when he didn't like her much back in her IA days mostly for writing up or sending most of his officers to seminars. No, he was a happily married and very content with his personal life. His jealousy came into play from the fact that she had power, respect, a team that would stand behind her no matter what, and were her friends now.

He had to admit that Captain Sharon Raydor had it all and had earned it the hard way. Throughout his lifetime, Taylor been trying to obtain most of the same things. Whereas he vocally demanded it, she without uttering a word, commanded it naturally.

As he made his way into the room he cleared his throat to announce his entrance. No one bothered to turn and acknowledge him. It had seemed that somehow over time he apparently became his own worst enemy.

 **~The end~**


End file.
